A blog about Michael Cnudde's novel, War Plan Crimson, A Novel of Alternate History and his other works of fiction. Also features reviews and rants on all things alternate history.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

What if Donald Trump Didn't Win the 2016 Election?

October 22, 2021:

The election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United
States was never a forgone conclusion.Yet it happened.

When he launched his campaign for the presidency in 2015, no
one, let alone the candidate himself, thoughthe stood a chance.But to everyone’s shock and surprise
–including those in the Republican Party – Trump had tapped into a low albeit
rising level of anger fueled anxiety. But even by itself, this may not have
been enough to put Trump over the top. Indeed, by the end of March 2016, polls by many different
organizations had begun to show his numbers begin to soften, if not collapse.
Certainly when he lost the Wisconsin Primaryin April, it looked the
case. And in the unlikely event Trump had gotten the majority of
primary votes, the GOP stood ready to frustrate him through a contestedconvention, even if it meant losing the election to the Democrats.

But only if. Trump plowed on, despite his slumping numbers. No
one had counted on, however, the events of June 31st, 2016, which
remains to this day the single largest mass casualty terrorist attack on the
continental United States. As the events of this date have been seared into our
collective memory, I won’t recount the tragedy, suffice it to say that sometime
earlier, it had been pointed out that such an attack on US soil, then considered highly unlikely, could help catapult the Trump to victory. Trump had already built a solid base of
loyal supporters partly based on the fear of outsider groups such as Latinos and Muslims. The events of June 31st not only seemed to validate his
point of view in the eyes of many, but they also seemed to lend him a degree of
prescience.

President Trump at the 2018 dedication of the Mexican Wall.

Trump, with his mixture of bluster and threats, was
handily able to secure the Republican nomination held just two weeks later with
the attack still fresh in everyone’s mind. However, although he secured his
party’s nomination, he had still to beat the Democratic candidate.

For the Democrats, even so, with Trump as their rival, this
should’ve been their election to lose.However, because of sharp divisions in both Democratic nominees’ camps
stemming from a particularly long and hard-fought primary season, this led to a
lack of unity under the winning candidate.There was also the lingering blame for not stopping the
terrorist attack that hung over the Democratic incumbent, which led to a
massive erosion of support from the party’s traditional base. In spite of this,
the election was a close-run thing, with the final victor – Trump – only being
declared at 6:37 a.m. on the following morning.

Media pundits and historians often speculate what would’ve
happened if Donald Trump had lost the November 2016 election.Would we have been spared the events of
the last six years?Would the
world have been more peaceful and prosperous? We’ll never know.

This is not that story. This is the story of how Donald J.
Trump became the 45th President of the United States of America. We continue to live in his shadow and in
the world, he helped create.

And Finally...

I hoped you enjoyed this bit of political theatre, in itself a bit of what-if, which is my take on current events. All of this is pure speculation. Keen eyes will note, of course, there is no such thing as June 31st, and my story should not be treated as any attempt at any type of prognostication or warning. The title of this post is an homage of sorts to the title of "If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg," penned by none other than Winston Churchill, which appeared in If it Happened Otherwise: Lapses into Imaginary History, which was discussed earlier in this blog.

I hope to have a book review for you next month. Or something like that.

About Me

Michael Cnudde is the fevered mind behind Somerset House Press. He is a writer, editor, corporate communications professional, and a former educator. Michael enjoys writing poetry and short speculative fiction. He is currently is working on his next novel. He lives in Toronto, Ontario where he plots global domination in his spare time.
All opinions the author expresses are his own.
Follow Michael Cnudde on Twitter: @mcnudde